Mercato Bar & Kitchen Ithaca

Oh my goodness, we were seriously thrilled to stumble upon this place! We came for the wine/convenient location and ended up falling in love with the atmosphere, service and excellent pasta. We had a split Hanger Steak, which they neatly split for us, along with the sausage and bell pepper ravioli and gnocchi with eggplant ragu… wow. All so phenomenal. It’s so charming watching the chef prepare the meals and personally quality check each dish. I truly cannot recommend this place enough, and even though I typically choose meat dishes above all else, the pasta is to die for!

My girlfriend and I decided to take a romantic getaway on the finger lakes and our drive had us passing through Ithaca, so we decided to stop for dinner. A good friend recommended this place, and admittedly I was skeptical of Italian food this far from New York City, but I trust their recommendations and decided to give it a try. I am so glad that I did. For our wine selection, our server allowed us to sample one of the wines by the glass, which tasted thin. When we described what we wanted, she came back with a reasonably priced bottle that exactly hit the deep red notes that we were looking for (see the picture for the winery / vintage if interested). We started with the crostini sampler. In my opinion, the Caponata was the best, but they were all interesting to try and I was glad we got all three. As a nice touch, they cut each crostini in half so my girlfriend and I could both easily sample each one. For dinner, I had the grilled hanger steak, which came with rapini and shoestring fries. I admittedly gave an annoyingly long description of how I wanted it cooked (essentially rare+) and they nailed it. The steak was fantastic, but the accompaniments were so good that they almost stole the show. The shoestring fries’ rosemary seasoning was a fun twist and the rapini was both familiar (garlic and olive oil) and excitingly different. For dessert, I had what was essentially espresso mousse with graham crackers and a glass of dessert wine. While probably the weakest course, it was still a delicious way to cap an amazing meal. The mousse required a bit more texture, but fortunately they provided graham crackers on the side (which I suggest crumbling into the mousse). I’d highly recommend checking this place out if you happen to be in the area.